www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Attwater's The Christian Churches of the East

Howdy from beautiful Kansas folks! Yesterday I received a book I had purchased on eBay, The Christian Churches of the East, vol. 2 Churches not in Communion With Rome, by Donald Attwater, published by Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee 1948. I have a question for those of you "in the know" who may be familiar with this book. How accurate is Attwater in his description and understanding of the Churches of the East? I know that some of the material is dated and I have noted more than a trace of Roman triumphalism at times, but in other places he has the highest praise and sensitivity toward much of what he notes and decribes. How is Attwater's work looked at today? Given the time in which it was written (Communism, WWII, nascent beginnings of the ecumenical movement, etc), what can we learn from this book if anything? I now wish I could find a copy of vol 1, so I could read what he has to say about the Eastern Churches in Union with Rome. Oh, he does give a brief defense of St. Alexis Toth and was very understanding as to his reasons for breaking communion with Rome and going over to Orthodoxy. Don

Don,

I read vol. 1 of Attwaters' work. I don't remember much about the text, but I enjoyed the photographs (I'm a kid at heart).

In that book there is a wonderful B&W pic of Eastern hierarchs concelebrating the Divine Liturgy at the main altar in St. Peters' basilica in Rome. What I wouldn't give for a color photo of that!

Paul

I just found (and ordered) a copy of vo. 1 on Barnes & Noble used book search. Hope to have it by the end of next week. Can't wait to see it! Don

Attwater's two-volume book was published (second edition) just before Vatican II, but is still quite useful. It would worthwhile to undertake a third edition - but I would suggest a different plan. This time around, it would be nice to invite representatives of each of the Churches to be described to write accounts of these Churches, according to a general outline provided by the overall editor - and in view of the "information explosion" of the last four decades, a four-volume format might be required. Attwater also did a one-volume collection of English translations of the various Eastern Liturgies. It would be well to redo that also, but I would suggest, in addition, a series of good professional video-recordings of each of the Eastern Liturgies, preferably done on the native heath of the Liturgy in question. Incognitus

Dear incognitus,

Now you're cooking with gas!

Video is super, however still photos are quite good too. My RC priest friend lent me a book by Liturgical Press which had a series of B&W pics of the Divine Liturgy in each of the Catholic Eastern Churches.

I loved that book!

Paul

Come over for dinner next week and we can talk about it. I think they are pretty good and accurate overall, but the jurisdictional information is somewhat dated. I got mine from a traditionalist Roman bookstore out west of Topeka that was going to throw them out.

I have that book from Liturgical Press - well worth having on one's shelf, but it can be done better, by having solemn celebrations instead of one priest with one server. Besides, nowadays we can do things in color. Incognitus

Yes, hopefully a color edition will be published.

Paul

A color edition will necessarily mean new photographs - it would be ridiculously expensive and quite pointless to transform the existing photographs from black and white to color! Incognitus

Dear incognitus,

Thank you. You are right. I should have said that a completely new book documenting the Catholic Eastern Divine Liturgy in every Eastern Catholic Church should be published.

Paul

In principle, Paul is indisputably correct; such a book is needed. On the specific matter of the Byzantine Liturgy (the one with which I am the most familiar), it should be possible to print the Divine Liturgy once, with the prayers for the Liturgy of Saint Basil in an Appendix, and with an ample use of footnotes to give variant readings of this and that from the tradition of the several Local Churches. One note should indicate clearly that the book is not taking into consideration the innumerable varieties of abbrevations. Incognitus

You are definitely thinking along the right lines, Paul. Considering the post-Vatican II, post-Soviet, post-Orientale Lumen changes in Eastern Catholic identity and ecclesiastical structure are profound indeed, an update is certainly in order.

And with digital photography it is certainly easy enough to make new photos, graphics, folios, etc. for such a book.

Dear Diak,

The Liturgical Press book has the Ruthenian priest without a beard! Is that a scandal or just reality?

Paul

I would guess that's a scandal to most people who are not Ruthenian Catholic, and not a scandal to most people who are Ruthenian Catholic.

Which is more important?

paromer wrote:

"a completely new book documenting the Catholic Eastern Divine Liturgy in every Eastern Catholic Church should be published."

Paul,

Agreed; meanwhile, a less than complete, but very well-done and interesting site has texts and some photographic sequences of the Liturgy in various Eastern Catholic Churches. The site has been around for a while, so if folks are already familiar with it, I apologize for cluttering the bandwidth with the url.

http://www.homestead.com/easterncatholichymns/spasihospodi.html

Be patient, it loads slowly in my experience.

Many years,

Neil